


He Ain't Heavy

by ithilien22



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Lightwood & Jace Wayland Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 21:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8261689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ithilien22/pseuds/ithilien22
Summary: After Jace is rescued, he wakes up to find Alec by his side.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Had to do another quick Jace & Alec scene after all of the promo stuff. No spoilers or even much plot conjecture. Just Jace and Alec being brothers.

Jace comes to slowly, blinking his surroundings into focus. The first thing he realizes is that he's definitely not at the institute, the second is that someone is holding his hand. As he begins to stir, the hand in his grips tighter.

"Jace?"

When Jace turns his head, Alec is there, sitting in a hard-backed chair that's been pulled up beside the bed that Jace is apparently lying on. The very ornate, lavish bed. _Magnus_.

"Why am I at Magnus's place?" he asks, trying to sit up a bit against what feels like thirty odd pillows at his head. He doesn't move to pull his hand out of Alec's grip.

"It's not- the institute, there's. You can't be at the institute right now," Alec stutters out, his free hand moving to rub at the back of his head. "Just... not yet."

"They think I'm a traitor," Jace says, closing his eyes briefly against the onslaught of emotion. "Well, they're right."

Alec's hand squeezes his and Jace forces himself to open his eyes.

"They're not. You're not," Alec says firmly. "Valentine was manipulating you, and you still helped us deal a huge blow to him. She- the Clave just doesn't understand that yet. But they will."

Jace notices Alec's slip but doesn't know if he can bring himself to ask. Instead he lets the silence stretch out over several long moments, glancing around the room in hopes of some other topic to grab onto.

"So Magnus, huh?" he says eventually, aiming for a lighter tone and trying not to take it personally when Alec blushes slightly and withdraws his hand. "Is that a thing now? You guys?"

"I don't know... I guess? It's- we're. We're just getting to know each other still," he says, no longer meeting Jace's eye. Jace wants to reach back out for him again but he stops himself.

"Is that selfish?" Alec asks him softly. "To- to want this with everything else that's going on? That's what Maryse thinks."

Jace wonders when Alec started calling their mother 'Maryse'. He thinks again of Alec's slip earlier and swallows thickly.

"You are the least selfish person I know," he tells Alec truthfully. "You deserve to finally be happy."

Alec looks up at that, and his brows are knitted together in confusion.

"I wasn't-" he stops himself, shaking his head slightly. "I wasn't unhappy... I mean, not exactly. You were-"

He stops himself again, blush deepening. Jace opens his mouth to say something, but Alec pushes forward.

"I knew you were never going to love me the way I loved you," he says, staring past Jace at the pillows behind him, blush high on his cheeks. "But it wasn't- I. I didn't feel- it just was what it was."

It's weird, hearing Alec say the words out loud. They haven't had a real conversation in months, and now suddenly here they are and there's a million other things they need to say to one another, and yet none of those things seem to matter next to this.

It kind of makes Jace want to punch something, honestly. He knows they do need to talk about it - should have before, really - but he doesn't know what to say. Alec is right, and it's so stupid, because he loves Alec more than anyone else in his life. Alec literally has a part of his soul. But it's still not the same.

"It's different with Magnus, though," Jace settles on finally, and Alec meets his eyes again slowly. "We all saw it at the wedding - how he feels about you."

Alec smiles softly, but rubs at the back of his neck again.

"It's still new," he repeats. Jace wonders if he even realizes that he's smiling. "But yeah, I guess I- I think it could. I think we could... have something."

Jace thinks about Clary, how determined she had been to find him. He wonders where she is now, but doesn't know if he should ask.

Alec's smile becomes a little crooked.

"Clary is sleeping in the den," he tells Jace, because of course Alec somehow knows _exactly_ what he's thinking. "She looked about ready to drop, so I told her I would keep watch for a while. We sent Izzy back to the institute to keep an eye on things for us. She should be checking in soon."

"Oh," is all Jace manages to respond, feeling stupid. "Well, I'm awake now, so you should get some sleep too."

He expects Alec to argue with him, but instead his parabatai stands almost immediately, stretching out his back and torso from the uncomfortable chair.

"Okay fine, budge over," he says, and Jace actually laughs, shifting slightly to make room for Alec in the truly enormous bed.

"You haven't crawled into bed with me since we were like thirteen," he says as Alec makes himself comfortable, tossing several pillows off the edge of the bed before finding one to tuck beneath his head.

"Yeah well," he says, yawning into the words. "Things are different now."

Jace feels his heart squeeze slightly and he rolls a bit closer to the warmth of Alec's body.

"Yeah, I guess so," he says, but Alec's eyes are already drifting closed.

When Clary wakes up a few hours later, she finds them curled up together, breathing softly. She smiles at the sight and can't help snapping a surreptitious photo before taking up Alec's place in the chair by the bed, keeping vigil until they wake.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading <3 come see me over on [tumblr](https://ithilien-writes.tumblr.com/) as well!


End file.
